I landed in London for a surgical conference the day after the Westminster Bridge tragedy. When news broke out about it in Melbourne prior to my departure some of my friends and family wondered if i would still go. And when I said yes, they all said be careful over there. It’s interesting with 24 hour news these days what a skewed perspective we have of the world. These occurrences seem more common than ever before, however, we live at a time in history which is probably the safest it’s ever been for most of us.

Though these incidents always seem to be linked back to religious fanaticism and terrorism, my personal feeling is that these individuals have either psychiatric or severe behavioural disorders. Their mental imbalance is the fundamental problem and then they latch onto some ideology that provides an outlet for them. Even in Melbourne recently, when the Bourke street mall tragedy occurred, Pauline Hanson was being interviewed and said, “it seems that their has been a terrorist attack”, which ultimately proved to be false.

Though there is a small subsection of the population who are brainwashed into fanaticism, I suspect the ones who actually “act out” are mentally unstable. In any case, we can not let these incidents affect our lives. We must be sensible and cautious but we must support freedom and democracy by living fearlessly.  By and large, human beings are good and I prefer to believe in the goodness of humanity rather than shrink with fear because of these sporadic occurrences. Living in fear is an unhealthy mind set. It closes and constricts us. Living in love is joyous. It keeps us open and large. I know which one I prefer.

Be well

Ranjit